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Best Practices for Assisting the Farming Population with Their Behavioral Healthcare Needs
Thursday, November 18, 2021, 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM CDT
Category: Events

Best Practices for Assisting the Farming Population with Their Behavioral Healthcare Needs (2.5 Hours)
ONLINE VIA ZOOM

Michael Rosmann, PhD, is an Iowa psychologist and farmer whose life’s work is improving the behavioral health of agricultural producers.  He instigated the federally-funded Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network.  He worked with the American Psychological Association to obtain National Health Service Corps incentives for psychologists to work in mental health shortage areas.  He contributed to adoption by the DHHS of the term, behavioral health, as less stigmatizing term, mental health.  He contributes to BBC, NPR, PBS and other media.  

Lauren Welter, PhD, is a psychologist who manages a busy practice in rural eastern Iowa.  She writes monthly columns for several agricultural publications.  She, her husband, and their three children reside on their farm near Monticello, Iowa.  Dr. Welter has interests in serving the behavioral healthcare needs of rural women, improving behavioral healthcare services for agricultural producers, and undertaking research about these matters.  She has specialized experience with psychological trauma, including combat experiences, sexual and other interpersonal trauma (including domestic violence), farm-related and other motor vehicle accidents, and more.

Isaac Hooley, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar, and newly licensed psychologist, who directs clinical services at the University of Iowa Telepsychology Training Clinic for the Counseling Psychology program where he obtained his Ph.D.  He grew up on his family’s livestock and crop-seed farm in southern Idaho, and helps with the farming operation when possible.  Isaac’s career aims include: understanding how agricultural people adapt to their environments, and to making behavioral healthcare welcoming and non-stigmatizing.




Date
November 18, 2021 | 2pm - 4:30pm CST

2.5 CE Hours available

Cost
IPA Student Members: $0
All others: $30

Location
Zoom: credentials will be emailed to registrants closer to the event.

Click here to register

About This Workshop

This 2.5 hour workshop examines the unique behavioral health issues and needs of people engaged in agriculture, their families and their often underserved rural communities. The presenters will engage the participants in the discussion of principles and the practice of therapeutic tactics that benefit farmers, ranchers, farm workers, and anyone else involved in agriculture. 

Farming has long been one of the most stressful occupations and with one of the highest rates of occupationally-related suicide.  Genetic and psychological evidence indicates a propensity for anxiety and depression among agrarian people, which enhances their risk for suicide.  However, there is evidence of a declining rate of suicide by the agricultural population, even though farming-related stress remains high.  Why?  One explanation is that farmers are becoming more open about their behavioral health; some even ask how to proactively manage their behavioral health in order to be optimally productive.  Managing behavioral health makes sense to farmers; it’s one of the few factors affecting their well-being over which they have considerable control.  This explains the rationale for this workshop: how to undertake the most effective therapeutic interventions with distressed farming people, and how to teach behavioral health management to them.

Three Iowa psychologists, all involved in agriculture, will explain their experience and perspectives about the behavioral well-being of people involved in agriculture and how they effectively serve the needs of farmers, their families, and their communities.  They will demonstrate best practices, answer questions, and engage in active discussion throughout the workshop.  The presenters will provide Power Points and supplemental readings to the workshop participants.  They also will provide additional resources, such as the USDA Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network, Employee Assistance Programs that can pay for necessary farming-related behavioral healthcare, a glossary of agricultural terms, and articles they have written for professional journals, agricultural magazines, and newspapers.

Intended Audience: The workshop is recommended for behavioral healthcare professionals everywhere who serve the mental/behavioral health needs of the farming population, as well as other professionals who work with the farming population, the agricultural population (farmers, ranchers, farm workers, fishers, foresters, their families), and anyone else who is interested in the subject matter.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:
  1. Participants will acquire current information about the behavioral health of the agricultural population, their major issues, suicide rate, and research findings about why people farm.
  2. Participants will learn obvious---and subtle--signs of anxiety, depression, and suicidal intent by people involved in agriculture, their need for care, how to find help, and what is needed for services to be credible.
  3. Participants will learn how to undertake agricultural behavioral health services that are culturally acceptable, affordable, available when needed, and accessible through telehealth or within reasonable driving distance for farmers, ranchers, farm workers, and other rural residents.
  4. The participants will become familiar with appropriate language terms when undertaking professional services and consultations with the agricultural population, reducing stigma about behavioral healthcare, how to reach the agricultural population though community workshops, and how to build networks of support for distressed farmers and families.

Click here to register


Continuing Education

CE will be emailed to attendees who have completed the training evaluation.


Refund and Cancellation Policy

We understand, sometimes things come up!

IPA will offer a full refund to registrants who cancel their registration 7 days prior to an event/course. If a registrant would like to cancel their registration within 7 days of the event, no refund will be offered.

Best Practices for Assisting the Farming Population with Their Behavioral Healthcare Needs


Contact: Suzanne Hull, [email protected]